India will see an investment of about $300 billion over the next decade in setting up of refineries, oil and gas pipelines and expansion of city gas distribution network as it builds infrastructure to cope with the massive demand surge, oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan said.

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Speaking at KPMG’s ENRich 2018 energy conference here, he said India is the third largest energy consumer in the world after the US and China and its energy demand will grow three-fold by 2040.

According to BP Energy Outlook, India will be the key driver of global energy demand in the next 25 years.

To meet the massive demand, it is building world’s largest oil refinery in Maharashtra at a cost of $40 billion, he said adding about $3 billion is being spent on laying gas pipelines to connect the eastern part of the country to the gas grid.

Also, liquefied natural gas (LNG) receipt terminals at Ennore in Tamil Nadu and Dhamra in Odisha are being set up at a cost of Rs 10,000 crore for supplying imported gas to eastern and southern states, he said.

City gas distribution network to supply CNG to automobiles and piped natural gas to households is being expanded to cover 70% of the population in the next 2-3 years. “Up to 2014, only 66 districts in the country were covered under city gas distribution. Work on 174 districts has begun which will further expand to cover over 400 districts in the next 2-3 years covering 70% of the population and 52% of geography,” he said.

To promote clean energy, the government has launched a scheme to produce bio-CNG from agri waste by setting up 5,000 plants in the next five years. “These plants will not only help tackle the problem of agricultural waste burning but also bring monetary benefits to farmers,” he said.

Remunerative price for ethanol extracted from sugarcane has led to availability for blending in petrol increasing from 38 crore litres in 2013-14 to 150 crore litres in 2017-18, he said. “Work is also underway to establish 12 modern bio-refineries at a cost of Rs 10,000 crore to produce 2nd generation ethanol,” he said.

While India leaps to Bharat Stage-VI or Euro-VI grade fuel from current Euro-IV fuel by 2020, it is investing in countries such as Russia to secure its oil needs, he said.

India is 83% dependant on imports to meet its oil needs and investing in oil and gas fields abroad gives it security of supplies.

“Our dwindling domestic oil and gas production is a concern,” Pradhan said. 

BUILDING INFRASTRUCTURE

  • $40 bn – BP building the world’s largest oil refinery in Maharashtra  
  • Rs 10,000 cr – cost for setting up LNG terminals in Tamil Nadu and Dhamra in Odisha